I am heartbroken witnessing the news and images of the pure evil being perpetrated in Iraq. These animals are beheading little children. This is an evil so reviling one must reach into history to find examples of such atrocity. It is a call to all of humanity to do something.
I believe that something must be done, no less than mobilizing the human race's might to hammer this attempt to take the planet into oblivion. I cannot understand why President Obama remains so timid. These criminals against humanity roam freely over the Iraqi landscape when they should be hiding like rats from the world's combined air power. We have the means to bomb their combat concentrations and deprecate their numbers. We have the means to be guardian angels. Yet we do not.
Instead we do the barest minimum. We see leaders unable to admit that something bold needs to be done. They hang on to political positions that no longer apply given the change of circumstances. Well we did the barest minimum too in the 1930's when the last planetary holocaust began. Are we going to wait until the sons of Saladin are at our gates before we act? Are we that stupid?
The lame excuses are the same. We don't want to insult even as we are defiled. We pretend there is the possibility that insane people will come to their senses on their own. Who are we kidding? What is it about the gentler side of humanity with this cognitive dissonance that goes opaque in the face of the obvious? All it does is create time and space for evil to annihilate the innocent.
And then there are those in denial. We always seem to have among us those who wrongly believe that they can contain outrageous brutality through diplomacy and bribery. Western or Arabian, these diplomats are mistaken. It is as false a belief today as it was when Chamberlain declared he had secured "peace in our time" from Hitler. Millions die because too many fail to wake up to the reality it is infeasible to negotiate with evil in its purest forms.
And finally we have those that shirk the responsibility to do something. I'm not talking about the innocents in the path of destruction, no matter how those who are the true shirkers play with rhetoric about it's their fight not ours. That's a load of nonsense. There is a responsibility that falls upon those with the power to contain evil to use that power in instances like these. FDR knew it and he put the United States on a war footing because it was the right thing to do.
So the question falls to President Obama and the U.S. Congress: Are you going to step up to what has to be done? Yes, this is a watershed test of U.S leadership. Yes, it will require the United States to lead the charge; to become Rome. Yes, this does require building a global coalition that spans nations, cultures, religions and factions. Yes, this will be a 21st Century multilateral crusade that pits the entire planet against radical Islam. It is a fight of biblical proportion against another dark age. It will cost the planet everything if we fail.
Previously on this topic, "Onward to the 7th Century"